Open Studio : April 16, 6-8pm
Sanié Bokhari
Field Resident, Mar 6, - Apr 16, 2022
My practice is deeply rooted in investigating the complex history of South Asia, interrogating ideas of imperialism, migration and cultural identity through a feminist perspective. By constructing intricate visual and psychological spaces through large-scale graphite drawings, painting and sculpture,I employ figurative language to describe my personal experiences of being a south-asian woman living in New York. My narratives reference the stylization of Mughal, Persian and Rajasthani schools of miniature painting while also being embedded in western pop culture, something I was exposed to at a very young age.
The images depict the precarious nature of traversing in and out of gendered roles, intending the viewer to understand the female character as the protagonist rather than a monolithic being. Through its various forms, the female presence makes a statement and reinforces its importance; to cultivate a critical yet productive intersectional dialogue. The figures emphatically straddle between self-actualization and rage, resulting in a contemporary Judith and Holofernes saga rooted in sub-continental imagery: a roaring flame, a branded sneaker, broad Goya-esque brushstrokes harmonizing with a delicate Pardakht, stylized lotus petals and Indo-Persian swirls.
The work walks through a combination of divergent mindsets, where the idea of what gender equality means is looked at from a global lens. It strives to deconstruct the idea of the exclusivity of western feminism and its impacts around the world, specifically the south. The objective of my work is to understand and process the experience of a transnational woman, existing with a history of colonial rule, while grappling with the notion of race, a construct inescapable in American culture.
Biographical Statement
Sanié Shoaib Bokhari completed a Bachelor’s in Painting from the National College of Arts, Lahore, in 2014, and after teaching there for 2 years she completed an MFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2018. She was the recipient of the President’s Scholarship at RISD, and was also selected to work with the Contemporary art curator at the RISD Museum. She has exhibited her work in numerous shows in Pakistan and the US, including Canvas Gallery in Karachi and Fridman gallery in NYC. Her residencies include Luton Culture in 2012, Vermont Studio Centre in 2015, NARS Foundation in New York in 2018 and PLOP residency in London 2019 & Vasl Residency in Karachi in 2020.
BOKHARI’S PROJECT:
This project will be an install of drawings that exist as one long narrative, comprising several smaller parts. The project intends to make sense of two worlds; a world which exists in memory vs a physical world. Architectural references in the imagery will allow access to the viewer of the physical, while clothing and fashion of the drawn figures evoke the memory of another culture/time/space. Having never had a studio in Manhattan, I want to record architectural facades around the neighborhood, through the process of frottage; a technique that involves placing paper over textured material or objects and rubbing it with pencil. Surrealist artist Max Ernst was the first to pioneer this method - someone whose work I've always looked up to, and for this project, his drawings will be a key reference point.
Conceptually, these rubbings are intended to be a re-enactment of the environment around me, combining it with the memory of a far away place; resulting in a fantastical landscape that is free of the impositions placed by the outside world. Under the guise of this whole, yet delicate narrative, knowledge and history are carried along as part of a fantasy, resulting in a form that is non-conforming and unbound by time or space.
Field Residency
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